Many cardiac arrhythmia's that formerly required the use of potentially toxic drugs or cardiac surgery can now be routinely cured (or at least palliated) in the electrophysiology laboratory by means of transcatheter ablation techniques. Atrial and ventricular tachyarrthmia's are routinely ablated using catheter ablation techniques. Some of the commonly ablated arrythmia's are AV nodal reentry tachycardia (AVNRT), accessory pathway mediated tachycardia (AVRT), atrial flutter, atrial fibrillation, normal heart ventricular tachycardias (VT), and ischemic heart VT. Ablations for atrial fibrillation (using pulmonary vein isolation or substrate modification techniques) are procedures that are becoming increasing common, since atrial fibrillation is a significant health issue.
Complications of catheter based ablation procedures include AV heart block, perforations of the heart muscle particularly of thin structures like the atria, and risk of emboli particularly when ablating on the left side of the heart, such as left atrium or left ventricle.
During certain ablation procedures, a backup system where a software based instrument is capable of stopping ablation energy delivery, is highly desirable and may prevent serious complications such as complete heart block, and subsequent pacemaker implant, among other complications. Such a system can also be used in non-cardiac ablations of other organs such as stomach and liver.
Applicant's related co-pending application Ser. No. 11/112,648 (filing date Apr. 22, 2005) entitled “Method and system of increasing safety of cardiac ablation procedures”, and co-pending application entitled “Ablation interface device for monitoring catheter ablations for atrial fibrillation” are generally directed to a novel PC based system that interfaces with both the patient and the ablation generator for providing added safety to the ablation procedures. These patent applications are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference. Such system finds uses in different types of cardiac ablation procedures, particularly left atrial ablations for atrial fibrillation, and slow pathway modification for providing ablation therapy of AV nodel reentry tachycardia (AVNRT).
For procedures such as AVNRT, and left atrial (or ventricular) ablations among other procedures, there are many situations where a quick and prompt cessation of ablation energy delivery can prevent a major complication. This patent application is directed to novel method and system for stopping energy delivery of an ablation procedure utilizing a computer initiated switching-control means. Pre-determined criteria's are set based on one or more parameters, for the computer program to detect the occurrence of a pre-determined event and send a command to stop ablation energy delivery. This provides an extra level of safety to the procedure.